Don't Let Him See You
by TwinklingCupcake
Summary: While Bendy and Mary carry out Alice's errands, they try to avoid the Projectionist. But then... [Kid Protag AU; small scene during chapter three]
1. Avoid

_"_ _Don't let the Ink Demon see you."_

Bendy was quiet as he and Mary navigated the few dry, above-ink spots. Mary didn't ask why, or what was on his mind: she knew.

Alice.  
It was and wasn't her. The Alice in the cartoons was nicer than that - she could be 'saucy' as her mom said, but she wasn't anything like this. She didn't shriek and pound against glass and scare people half to death. She didn't talk about Bendy like he was a disgusting monster. She didn't…she didn't torture and kill other toons.

But it looked like her. And sometimes it sounded like her.

Neither of them wanted to think about what would have happened if she'd actually noticed Bendy hiding behind Mary.

 _"_ _Well well well…what's a teensy little girl doing down here? This is certainly no place for children…..I'll tell you what, little girl. Do a few_ _ **eensy, weensy**_ _favors for me, and I'll tell you the way out…"_

Mary suppressed another shiver. No, no, don't think about that.

"Hey. Mary."

"Huh?" The little girl looked down at Bendy. She couldn't hold his hand, since the thingamabobber that Alice had given her was so heavy she had to hold it in two arms. So Bendy made up for it by sticking as close to her as possible. "What's wrong, Bendy?"

Bendy's smile looked rueful. Silly question, he wanted to say. "Are you doin' okay?" he asked instead. "You don't have to do anything she says, you know, we can find the exit without–"

Mary quickly shook her head. "No…No, I mean. I don't wanna do what she says but. But she's the only one who knows the way out now." Bendy had thought he did, but even he was taken aback by how different these next floors looked. He'd been in that pipe for too long, it seemed. Nothing looked the same to him anymore. "If…if it's the only way to get you an' Boris out too, then I'll do what she wants."

"It's gonna be scary, you're not gonna like any of it."

"I know, but–"

 _SPLSH. SPLSH. SPLSH. SPLSH._

The two of them froze. Bendy threw an arm out in front of the child, ushering her back against a wall. They hid quickly as possible, peering around the corner and into the ink flood.

An inky figure was shuffling through the flood. A figure with a projector a head. He swung around, the light passing too close to their hiding spot. Mary and Bendy threw themselves back against the wall and out of sight, holding their breaths.

 _'Don't let the Ink Demon see you.'_

Mary gripped the thingamabobber tightly in her arms, squeezing her eyes shut. _'Please,' she prayed. 'Please please please please–'_

The inky figure turned and splish-splashed away. Bendy let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Okay, let's hur–"

But as they ran out, as they began to run along the floorboards, something happened. Several somethings.

Mary dropped the tool Alice had given her, her arms too tired and her movements too quick for balance.  
Her foot caught over it in the drop.

And most importantly, she fell into the ink.

Which was too deep for her to stand in.

"BENDY!" she screamed, splashing wildly and struggling to keep her head above the surface. Black liquid sprayed everywhere as she struggled to keep afloat, struggled to get back to 'land.' "BENDY, HELP ME! HELP ME!"

"Mary!"

There was sudden, rapid splashing heard just over the sound of the girl's terrified thrashing and screaming. He was coming.

"Mary, hang on!" Bendy first threw his arm out to grab her, but he was too short to reach. He grabbed the dropped tool and tried to hold it out, but it was too heavy. He had to rest it on the floor and push it as far as he could. "Mary, grab it, hurry!"

"BENDY I'M–" Mary briefly went under, then burst up again, supernatural ink sliding off her terrified face. "I'M SCARED–"

"MARY, PLEASE, GRAB THE–"

 _click_ _ **WHIRRRRRRR**_

A spotlight shone on Mary and Bendy both. The sudden harsh glare made Mary briefly stop moving, and she went under for another second. She broke the surface again, screaming loudly at the sight of the inky figure standing - looming - over her.

"MARY, GRAB IT NOW!" Bendy cried, clearly terrified.

"BEND–!"

The figure reached down.

"LET GO OF–!" Bendy began to shout, but then…

…the figure dipped his hands into the ink flood, and lifted Mary up, hands under her arms. It held her high in the air as Mary coughed and gasped for breath, waiting for her to calm down and breathe normally again, waiting for the strange ink to drip off her.  
Then it waded over to where Bendy stood, and lowered her to safety. Mary looked up, still trembling, as the ink creature patted the top of her head almost affectionately.

"Th…ere…there…car…ful now…" it gurgled, and then turned and waded away, as if nothing had happened.

Bendy stared after it in shock and horror.

* * *

 _"_ _There there." The familiar man chuckled, patting Bendy's head as he fixed the reel. "Careful now, Bendy."_

* * *

"Norman…" Bendy breathed, heartbreak twisting his features as the two watched him wade around a corner.


	2. Hide

The switches weren't that difficult to reach. Hard to find, some of them, but not out of reach. Mary could easily stretch onto her tippy toes, or hoist Bendy onto her shoulders.

Even the switch they'd needed to move past Bertram to reach had been simple. When he'd seen (somehow) that she was only a child, it seemed to stir some forgotten memories within him. And like many of the other toons and human-shaped ink creatures she'd met, he hadn't wanted to hurt her.

("Because yer a child, kiddo," Bendy had explained as they hurried along. "Yer one of the people were were meant to entertain, to make smile. None o' the toons wanna hurt ya, and most of the people don't either."

Sammy had hurt her. And Alice had tried to. But the two of them wondered if maybe…maybe they were simply bad people. Some adults had no trouble hitting a kid or worse, after all…)

So yes, the switches had been simple… Until they walked down a flight of stairs and had found a flooded room of ink.

"Now what do we do...?" Mary whispered to herself, shoulders slumping in defeat. The ink was too high for her to wade through, and there were no docks or bridges for her to walk on. They'd somehow managed to avoid the worst of the flooded areas until now, but... But now it seemed they were stuck.

At first.

 _slosh slosh slosh_

 _click_

 _whirrr_

 _whirrrrr_

Mary perked up as a familiar noise reached her ears. "Bendy, is that–?"

Sure enough, an inky humanoid with a projector for a head waded around the corner.

"Norman!" Bendy shouted before Mary could say anything. He cupped one hand around his mouth, waving frantically with the other. "'ey, Norman, pal, over here!"

"Norman?" Mary echoed quietly.

The projectionist's head turned their way, shining a spotlight on them. He waded over to them, as casually as if he were meeting them on the street. Then he bent down slightly, reaching out to pat a heavy hand against Mary's head. A gurgling sound escaped him, as if he wanted to speak but couldn't quite manage it.

Bendy forced himself to keep smiling, pretending that it didn't pain him to see one of his old friends like this. "'scuse me, Norman?" The projectionist's head turned his way, and he continued. "We're lookin' for a switch?"

"Yeah! A - A big lever!" Mary added, reaching one hand high above her head. "Have you seen one?"

The projectionist - Norman - tilted his head, as if thinking. Then he made another gurgling noise, turned around, and sloshed off. Mary and Bendy exchanged glances-

-and then they heard a heavy, mechanical creak.

There'd been a switch in that room after all.

"Thank you!" Mary cried out, clapping her hands once and bouncing on her heels. "Thank you, Mr Norman!"

Another sloshing sound and Norman came back to them. Once more, he patted Mary's head, then Bendy's. He gurgled again, like muddy water going down a drain, but this time they could make out a proper sound. _"Hu...huuuuh..."_

"Norman?" Bendy asked.

 _"Hur...rrryy... hoooome..."_ Norman finally managed. _**"Home..."**_

"We will," Mary said quietly, her brief happiness fading fast. "But first we hafta-"

Norman stiffened, shoulders tensing as he seemed to focus on something else.

"Norman?" Bendy whispered. "Norm, what's-"

He was abruptly cut off as Norman seized both his and Mary's arms and ran for the stairs. Ignoring Mary's yell of alarm, Norman forcibly dragged kid and toon up the way they'd came, moving like the devil were on his heels.

"Norman!" Bendy cried. "Norm-"

 _"Sshlk! Sssshhhk!"_ Norman gurgled loudly. He stopped in front of the Little Miracle Station, briefly released Bendy to open the door, and shoved them inside. Mary fell to the floor, skinning her knees, and she looked up to see Norman briefly hold a finger in front of his head.

 _Be quiet._

He quickly moved his hand in a downward motion, patting thin air.

 _Stay down._

The door closed, and they were in near-darkness. The only light came from a thin slat high on the door, but it was too high for Mary to see from, even if she stood on the seat.

Despite Norman's silent warning, Mary glanced at Bendy and tried to whisper: "What's going-"

An unearthly shrieking cut her off.

 ** _CLICK WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR_**

More shrieking, a heavy and sticky sound, whirring and squealing.

Mary covered her mouth with one hand, wide eyes trained on the slat above them. She felt Bendy wrap his arms around her shoulders, both to try and protect her and to comfort her. But even still she could feel his chest heaving in fright.

 _ **BAM!**_

The light briefly went out, the booth shook violently. Mary nearly screamed, only barely stopping herself. Bendy held her tighter, arms shaking. The light above dimmed slightly, they could hear a wet growling...

Something heavy being dragged away...

And then silence.

It was three minutes before Mary dared to speak. "Is it gone?" she whispered, her voice faint and far-away.

"I...I think so, pum'kin..." Bendy whispered, though he didn't sound convinced. When he pushed open the door, he did it slowly, only moving it a few centimeters and peeking out before deeming the coast clear. He pushed the door open the rest of the way as carefully as he could, praying for it not to squeak and alert whatever they'd been hiding from.

'Whatever.' He knew full well what they were hiding from.

Mary shakily followed him, clutching her wrench like a security item. She glanced around, and her gaze fell on something behind Bendy. "Bendy!" she gasped, one hand flying to her mouth.

He turned.

He felt his metaphorical heart fall into his stomach.

There, lying on the floor, was a projector, its light flickering three times before going out altogether.


End file.
